Homeowners have traditionally relied upon plumbers to repair and replace faulty plumbing. Professional plumbers are needed, in part, because older plumbing utilizes metal pipe, which require special equipment and experience to cut, repair and weld. The obvious difficulty in cutting metal pipe arises from the hardness of the steel or other metal used.
Although plastic pipe is now commonly used in new homes, plastic pipe can be difficult to cut to size because of its flexibility. For example, when attempting to cut plastic pipe with a hand saw to a desired length, application of sawing force to the pipe causes the pipe to bow, which results in an uneven cut. A pipe with an unevenly cut end may not be usable for attachment at the joint to which it is to be bonded.
While special tools have been developed to cut plastic pipe for use by plumbers and other skilled persons, such equipment is complicated to use, bulky or expensive, and thus not suitable for use by a homeowner or other unskilled person who may only need to cut a single length of plastic pipe. Thus, there remains a need for a plastic pipe cutting tool which is both inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use by an unskilled person.
It is against this background that the significant improvements and advancements of the present invention have taken place.